Crossfield received a letter from Minister Doug Griffiths confirming the Town’s Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding allocation for the year April 16.
The Town of Crossfield will receive a total of $694,659, with $52,286 earmarked for operational funding. Much of this year’s funding will go to the water reservoir update.
As the town continues to struggle with updating its aging infrastructure, Mayor Nathan Anderson says the funding will help.
“We can’t afford to put brand new pipes in the ground, but you don’t want to get to the point where you are replacing things because they break,” said Anderson.
“We need to make sure we are only replacing the things that need to be replaced.”
Councillor Jason Harvey echoed Anderson’s sentiments.
“The program is very important,” Harvey said. “It helps smaller communities like Crossfield with funding the larger projects in the town.”
The letter outlined the future of the MSI programs in Alberta, and says the operational funding portion of the program will be abolished in 2016.
Anderson says he feels the entire MSI program should be eliminated and the province should step back and allow municipalities to govern their own tax dollars, instead of the current structure of sending tax dollars north and waiting to hear how much support the province will give back.
“We send 40-plus per cent of our tax dollars to the Province, and we get a whole lot less back,” said Anderson.
“I would like to see them cut out MSI funding all together and let municipalities hold on to their taxation.”
“(The return) is not quite equitable. The smaller communities are feeling it this year,” said Harvey. “If we can’t get more of that money back from the province, its going to be tough to get these projects done without financing them and putting the town into debt, or raising taxes.”
According to the Town’s draft taxation bylaw, which will be up for third and final reading at the May 7 council meeting, the Town will send $1,393, 565.10 in school requisition to the Province and see about half of it back in MSI funding.
“They have put a burden on these communities with the school requisition, and these are direct hits on these municipalities,” said Anderson.
“As an electorate, and I am a part of that electorate, we need to demand better from our provincial counterparts. We need to demand independence from them and be treated like grown ups.”
